1961: Under Chandler, the paper recruits prominent journalists. Jim Murray's column debuts. Committed to expanding its coverage, The Times beefs ups its Washington bureau as President Kennedy takes office.

1961: Chandler is named corporate vice president of Times Mirror's newspaper division.

1961: After Chandler announces that The Times will cover all sides of the political spectrum, the paper publishes an ambitious and controversial series on the ultraconservative John Birch Society.

1962: The company's Los Angeles Mirror folds in deal with the Hearst Corp., which closes morning Los Angeles Examiner. Times average weekday circulation hits 757,776, a gain of 204,926 subscribers over the previous year. It is the largest circulation gain of any U.S. newspaper.

1985: Announces that he will step down as chairman and editor in chief of Times Mirror. "People want to stay on the same lane in the freeway, in the same safe cocoon," Chandler says. "I don't."

1986: Becomes chairman of the executive committee of the Times Mirror board.

1990: While Chandler is hunting in the Northwest Territories of Canada, a musk ox tramples him, yanking his right arm from its socket.

1990: Chandler puts his private collection of historic automobiles and motorcycles and wild game trophies into the Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife in Oxnard.

1992: After living in Malibu and Camarillo, Otis and Bettina Chandler move to a small horse ranch in Ojai.

1995: Chandler is injured in a motorcycle accident in New Zealand.

1998: Retires from the Times Mirror board. The Chandlers build a new home in Ojai.

1999: In a statement dictated to the city editor of The Times and read to the staff, Chandler criticizes the senior management team for a controversial deal to share with Staples Center the profits from a special issue of the Los Angeles Times Magazine on the new downtown arena.

2000: The Annenberg School for Communication at USC gives Chandler its first Lifetime Achievement Award.

2000: Times Mirror is purchased by Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune. Disenchanted with Times Mirror's management, Chandler praises the merger.